A BBC radio correspondent has been detained in Tajikistan on suspicion of belonging to an Islamist organisation, police said on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the police, Makhmadullo Asaduloyev, said 50-year-old Urunboi Usmonov is suspected of being a member of Islamist movement Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is illegal in the central Asian republic.

According to police, Usmonov, a Tajik citizen, joined the banned group in 2009 to carry out "propaganda and promoting this movement in social networks."

Usmonov has been kept in a high-security prison in Tajikistan's north for two days, although the court only sanctioned his arrest Wednesday afternoon, the journalist's lawyer, Fayzinisso Vakhidova, told the Associated Press.

Vakhidova said Usmonov had been denied access to legal help for two days, adding he is accused of using his job to promote the organisation's ideas.

Despite its designation as an extremist group, Hizb ut Tahrir has denied the use of violence. It is an international pan-Islamic organisation that operates legally in many countries, including Britain.

Tajikistan holds strategic importance in the Nato military campaign in Afghanistan, serving as a link in supply routes.

As the impoverished former Soviet republic fights a strong Islamic insurgency at the Afghan border, authorities led by president Emomali Rahmon have maintained a tight grip over the media and civil rights groups.

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